Hyderabad :

Despite the shadow of political uncertainty looming large, the state’s IT/ITeS exports clocked a healthy 26% growth in 2012-13 fiscal, outstripping the national growth rate of 23% for FY13.

State’s IT/ITeS exports grew to Rs 51,285 crore as against Rs 40,646 crore during the corresponding period last year, said the state IT department on Saturday. India’s IT/ITeS exports grew 23% to Rs 4,10,836 crore in 2012-13 financial year from Rs 3,32,769 crore in 2011-12 financial year.

According to data released by the AP IT department, the state’s overall IT revenues from IT/ITeS exports, special economic zones (SEZs), Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) and domestic business rose 26.17% to Rs 64,354 crore in 2012-13 financial year as compared to Rs 53,246 crore in the previous financial year.

Hyderabad continued to hog the limelight with a lion’s share of the overall IT/ITeS business in AP at over Rs 62,722.51 crore out of the total state IT/ITeS revenues of Rs 64,354 crore. According to the data provided by the IT department, the industry was able to generate 13.7 lakh jobs, including 3.2 lakh direct jobs and 10.5 lakh indirect jobs in FY13.

Commenting on the performance of the industry, state IT and communications minister Ponnala Laxmaiah said, “Contrary to popular perception that political uncertainty has hit the IT industry in the state, the figures reveal that the so called uncertainty has not blocked the way for the development of IT/ ITeS in the state.”

Interestingly, despite the economic slowdown, tier-II and tier-III cities too saw their IT business improve in the last fiscal. While Visakhapatnam’s IT/ITeS revenues soared 20% to Rs 1,445 crore in 2012-13 as against Rs 1,200 crore in 2011-12, that of Vijayawada shot up to Rs 115.26 crore as compared to Rs 95.6 crore and Tirupati’s increased to Rs 6.93 crore as against Rs 4.25 crore in the period under review. Kakinada’s IT/ITeS revenue almost doubled to Rs 61.54 crore in 2012-13 as against Rs 34.67 crore in 2011-12 fiscal.

The area occupied by the IT/ITeS industry in tier-II cities too rose to 13.5 lakh square feet in FY13 as compared to 12 lakh square feet in FY 12.

According to the data, US continues to be a major market for the state’s IT/ITeS industry with about 74% of the IT/ITeS exports meant for US and 17% to Europe.

source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Hyderabad / TNN / September 15th, 2013